Together, Forever
by jclong
Summary: One shot to combat writer's block. ReixShinji, but Tabris wants himself a little Rei action...


Nothing here is my property. It is all owned by Gainax/Anno. If they object, this comes down.

Kaworu quietly watched Rei and Shinji from the open door of the classroom. They were sitting by the open window, most likely enjoying the gentle breeze that blew in. The remains of a late lunch lay scattered on two desks that had been pushed together, a checkered tablecloth covering them. All the other desks had been neatly stacked against the back wall of the room. Shinji was looking out the window as Rei read aloud from some book that she no doubt had procured from the school's library.

He knew that she liked to read aloud to Shinji. He couldn't fault her for that. In another time, another place, he would have liked to do the same.

He knocked quietly against the door-frame, causing Rei to look up suddenly, her eyes narrowing. Sighing, he nodded to her and pointed to the ceiling. He turned to leave, but waited until he heard her tell Shinji that she was going to be right back. When he looked back, she was kissing the top of the boy's head.

She silently followed him up onto the roof, where she pushed past him to stare out over Tokyo-3. It was springtime, her favorite season, and the cherry trees that seemed to be everywhere these days were in full bloom. It did make for a pretty sight.

"I haven't changed my mind, Tabris." she said quietly, not looking at him, her arms clasped behind her as she shifted her gaze out to the ocean. "I wish you wouldn't keep bothering us. It upsets him. He doesn't like that you made him kill you."

Kaworu sighed again, rubbing the bridge of his nose. It seemed that she was still hung up on that whole thing. "I made my choice, but he went and threw the chance away. I just want to fulfill the destiny that he squandered. Is that so wrong?"

Rei laughed suddenly, a sharp, disgusted sound that was so unlike her normal self. She turned to face him now, hate and fury dancing in her crimson eyes. "He did the only thing that he could, after all that was done to him. He was so tired, Tabris. He was so tired of fighting. Of the hate. Of everything that we did to him. And I took control away from the Commander and gave it to him. I told him that I loved him, and that it was his choice. He just wanted to rest. To be loved. So he made his choice."

Kaworu, knowing that he was on thin ice, looked out over the city. Thunder rumbled in the distance, as it often seemed to do when they had their little talks.

"Is that what you tell yourself this is?" he asked almost as quietly as she normally was. "This is your love to him?" He waved out over the ruins of the city with one hand, and then pointed up to the red arc that circled the globe, his expression exasperated.

"I told him that we would be together forever, Tabris. And I meant it." she paused, the hardness in her eyes vanishing. "You weren't there at the end. To see how tired he was. To see what was done to everyone that he cared about, even as they used him for their own needs and purposes. Even I was taken from him."

"You are not the second. You, as you are, never loved him."

"Maybe. But I could just remember... hearing his cries at the end... it sparked something. A leftover feeling from the second, if you must. But it was enough. And now we are happy. He never frowns, or cries. He always has a smile for me, and I always have a smile for him."

Thunder rolled again, closer now. She looked up at the sky and then back at the exasperated gray haired boy. "We didn't bring an umbrella today, so we are going to be leaving early to go home. Don't follow us. You'll only upset him." She turned and left the roof, heading back down to the classroom.

He was still standing on the roof, and watched the pair as they left, a blue haired goddess in a school uniform and a skeleton dressed in a boy's uniform, levitated and held together by her AT Field.

Tabris sighed, watching them go. He would come again in a few years, he decided, to try again. For all her talk of staying with him forever, he knew that it couldn't last.

Couldn't it?


End file.
